“I’m honest enough to say that,” said Rodi. “To have a pope from the Americas – it’s a first. It reflects the global nature of the church. Increasingly, the leadership will come from all over the world.”

“I have to admit I didn’t know it would be this time,” said Rodi, who added that the churches across the archdiocese would be praying for the new pontiff this Sunday.

Bergoglio, 76, who took the name Francis, is the first Jesuit and the first non-European cardinal to be elected in more than 1,000 years. He was elected by the 115 Cardinals in the fifth ballot, surprising some observers who believed it would take longer.

Former Mobilian in Rome

“I think he will be a great pope! A Jesuit who takes the name of Francis,” wrote Rev. Msgr. Michael Farmer, former vicar general of the Archdiocese of Mobile.

Farmer is now in Rome at the Pontifical North American College, which overlooks St. Peter’s Basilica. After seeing the white smoke, he headed to join the throngs of observers to await the new pope’s appearance from a balcony on St. Peter’s Square.

“He is a spiritual man, filled with humility, but also direct and compassionate,” he said of Pope Francis. Farmer said he was going back to the college to offer prayers of thanksgiving and help with media interviews.

The Rev. Christopher Viscardi, chairman of the Theology Department at Springhill College, said he was recently reading America Magazine, a Jesuit weekly. Nowhere within the two pages of pope-related articles was the name of Cardinal Bergoglio, meaning that observers didn’t see him as a front-runner.

“He’s not mentioned anywhere,” he said.

Viscardi, himself a Jesuit, said the new pontiff could bring a traditional perspective of spirituality and a dedication to the core mission of the church. “For the last 50 years, there has been a growing focus in the Society of Jesus on those things of justice, faith and dialogue,” he said. “He, in his own life, has lived those things strongly.”

Community reaction

At St. Patrick Catholic School in Robertsdale, classes turned on their TVs to wait for the new pope to appear, said seventh-grade teacher Danielle Gorney.

“Once the Pope was revealed, the students immediately grasped the significance of the first Pope from Latin America,” Gorney said. “I have one student who is from Mexico and she was praying the Hail Mary and Our Father in Spanish with the new pope.”

She said the students noticed how many world flags could be seen in St. Peter’s Square and the generally young age of the crowd. “I tried to express to the students how wonderful it was that so many young people were excited about this historic moment in the history of the Catholic church,” she said.

John Robb, a parishioner at St. Ignatius Catholic Church and a local Catholic lay leader, called the election “a bold, historic step forward.”

“The key word from Pope Francis' first public address is ‘evangelize,’” Robb said. “As a proven leader of the New Evangelization, he is well prepared to spread Christ's Gospel worldwide and fill Pope Benedict XVI's famous red shoes.”